Jump to content


A Space Odyssey Chapter 5


  • Please log in to reply
No replies to this topic

#1 Guest_VigaHrolf_*

Posted 12 February 2004 - 09:44 PM

Author's Note: The intrepid explorers from the Gorion are now aboard the Helios and exploring. They've opened the door beyond the airlock room and are pressing deeper, looking for clues on a 500 year old derelict and maybe just a little profit...

Disclaimers: None

 
Bran swept the hallway with his Bladesinger while Valygar did the same with his twin Katanas. Nothing presented itself, just empty hallway. The hallway showed more signs of the ship’s age then the airlock room. Ceiling panels hung loosely and a good number of the light panels had long since burned out. The sputtering, intermittent light and broken panels gave the hallway an eerie look as the two men slowly advanced.

Over his comms, Bran joked, “Well, it looks like someone forgot to pay the maintenance crewers.”

He saw Valygar turn his head towards him slightly. “Either that or they’re just fond of Imoen’s cabin décor.”

Shaking his head, he laughed and then gave the order for the others to move up. Imoen and the doctor took the middle positions while Minsc and Jaheira took up rear guard positions. Weapons ready and scanners searching for any movement, the six probed deeper into the ship.

Passing long empty offices and workrooms and broken, aged equipment, the six penetrated deeper into the ancient ship. All of Imoen’s attempts to hack into the ship’s computer core were thwarted by broken or non functional computer consoles. One console she was working on blew out from the stress of being reawakened from its 500 year slumber. Her quick reflexes allowed her the chance to dive out of the way of a scything piece of molten processor and avoid what would have been a very close haircut.

Helping his sister up from the deck, Bran looked at the still smoldering hunk of computer buried in the far wall and let out a low whistle. Dusting herself off, Imoen followed Bran’s sight line and said, “Wow.”

“Yeah. Good thing it missed.”

“I know, that woulda hurt. Big time.”

“Yeah, and plus, if you got any shorter, we’d have to use the scanners to find you.”

Imoen turned and gave Bran a raspberry through her faceplate. Sniggering, Bran, said, “Nice. Great look for ya.”

“Shaddup.”

“Roger that.”

Jaheira’s voice cut in on the comms, “Considering that Imoen is alright but this computer console is far from it, shall we move on and find a working one?”

Nodding, Bran motioned for them to begin the search again. Their search of the remainder of the section proved to be equally fruitless. Just more empty offices, abandoned workrooms and damaged equipment. Finishing their search, the crew came to a set of heavy sealed blast doors.

Looking at the doors and then the scan results on his HUD, Bran said, “If the positioning is right, these are the doors to main corridor, to Broadway itself.”

Imoen, already at the door controls replied, “And they’re sealed tight. According to the indicator, full lock down.”

Rechecking the scanner, Bran said, “Okay, according to my scan, atmosphere and pressure are intact on the other side of the door. So shouldn’t be a problem to open er up.” Looking at Imoen, he asked with a smile, “Think you can handle that.”

Imoen tossed back a grin of her own. “Piece of cake.”

Bran nodded to the redhead as she went to work, then hefted his rifle to cover the heavy doors. Without a need for an order, Jaheira, Valygar and Minsc all took up positions to cover the hatchway. Doc Aerie simply found cover and rested a hand on her pistol.

While Imoen worked at the door panel, Bran switched to the suit to ship channel. “Nalia, Bran here. We are outside the hatch to Broadway. Immy’s working on the door, should be in a moment What’s your status? Anything interesting going on outside?”

It took a second for the response to come through, oddly enough. Nalia, sounding somewhat distracted replied, “Umm, nope. No changes in energy or thermal readings. Still no sign of life other than you guys.”

Now a little curious, Bran asked, “You okay? You sound a little.. distracted.”

“Umm… just fine. Just trying to track down a problem in umm.. the backup targeting sensor display,” Nalia answered hurriedly.

Bran’s next query was cut off by Imoen’s fist pump and whoop. “Gotcha. Busted that security code, no sweat. Door’s ready to open whenever you want it.”

Whatever Nalia might be up to could wait. Lifting his rifle to his shoulder and aiming it at the door, he said, “Alright sis, pop it.”

“With pleasure!” she replied, punching the door open button.

Nothing happened. Imoen gave the panel another look and jabbed at the control panel again. Still nothing. Not even the sound of whirring machinery or moving hydraulics. Imoen jabbed a third time, keeping her finger there, glaring at the heavy pressure doors. And for a third time, nothing happened.

Lowering his rifle, Bran asked, “Immy, what’s wrong?”

“Frelling door isn’t opening, is what it is,” she growled, pulling a plasma torch from her belt pack. Cursing unintelligibly to herself, the redhead thumbed the cutting tool on and jammed it into the plating around the door controls. The actinic glare of the plasma lit the gloom in the passage as the beam lanced through the metal. Bran exchanged looks with Jaheira and Valygar as the redheaded tech finished hacking her hole in the plating.

With a grumble of disgust and the clang of hacked away metal, Imoen flashed her suit lights into the mass of door controls and circuits she has revealed. The increasing crescendo of her grumbling didn’t bode well and less than a minute after she finished cutting her hole, she turned and swore, “Frell! Frell frell frell! The entire assembly is slag!”

“What do you mean by slag?” Bran asked carefully.

“I mean, the entire door control system is no more than some charred wires and melted circuits. Toast. Scrag. Slag!” she unloaded on her brother.

“Okay… can you fix it?”

“Sure… if ya wanna sit around for the better part of the day. The whole mechanism needs to be ripped out.” Imoen replied, her voice tinged with bitterness.

“Great. Lovely.” Bran deadpanned, bringing a hand up to rest on the back of his helmet. Letting out an angry breath, he asked, “Alright, options?”

Minsc boomed an answer first. “Blow the door. Boo says 3 kilos of GBD, but I disagree. Four kilos, two charges and BAM! one door shattered by our might!”

Valygar quietly added, “What about cutting the door itself? Slower but quieter. And with less chance of doing more damage to this old ship.” Jaheira quickly agreed with the quiet navigator’s assessment.

Aerie added, “Or.. or we could try another passage, another lock. M.. maybe one of them will work.”

Bran’s lips thinned as he thought about it. “Doc, good idea, but there is no guarantee any other hatch will work, or that we won’t have to cut through the airlock itself. And explosions, while fun… I’d rather not go blowing hatches unless we have to. I’d say the cutters, but the door’ll take too long. Shred the hydraulics and we can use suit power to shove the door out of the way. Valygar, Imoen, you’re up.”

The still frustrated Imoen smiled ferociously and brandished her plasma cutter while Valygar slung his Katanas and pulled out his own cutter. The two quickly went to work on the recessed hydraulics, Valygar working high while Imoen went low. The light from the combined plasma cutters threw back the gloom, bathing the corridor in white light. Faceplate filters straining out the worst of the light, the others stood in silence waiting for the work to complete.

After checking the charge in his rifle for the eighth time, Bran asked, “How things coming?”

Valygar’s calm voice replied, “Two more pistons, two minutes.”

The light of the cutting torches flared with life then finally winked out as the two scouts reported that the hydraulics locks had been breached. With a nod, Minsc and Bran moved to the one of the heavy doors and looked for convenient handholds. Setting their feet, they waited for the others to ready themselves. Then, the two heaved, allowing the strength magnifiers in their suits to help them shove the heavy door. Slowly, ponderously, the door ground open, revealing Broadway.

Now in Broadway, the six carefully began to move aft, heading for the engineering sections. At first, there was nothing markedly different about Broadway then the corridor they just left other than the hatches to other ship sections. Fifty meters into the gloom of the main passage, something different did appear.

“This is different,” remarked Valygar from the point position.

“What?” asked Bran.

“The damage, it looks like it’s from hand weapons, not just decay. Definite blast marks.. and whoa.”

Moving forward, Bran and the others took a look at the corridor walls. The wall panels were peppered with blast marks, some of the damage heavy. One corridor support had been completely blacked by blaster fire. Past the next support, the lights had all failed, the only illumination from Valygar’s suit lights. Beyond, in that darkness, was what had impressed Valygar so much.

One side of the corridor wall was blackened and torn, chunks of wall panel littered about. Chunks of ceiling panel dangled off loose wires, forcing Bran to duck as he stepped forward to get a better look. As he did, Bran felt the artificial gravity weaken. Looking down, he could see the deck plates had been warped and twisted, radiating out from the blast hole in the wall. Valygar, head in the gaping wound, said, “Someone got a little rambunctious with what looks like a rocket. And sheered opened a major power conduit.”

Looking in the hole himself, Bran replied, “Why in Terra’s name would someone be firing rockets aboard ship?”

“Someone desperate,” the taciturn navigator replied.

From behind them, the doctor added, “I’m reading definite organic residue on the far wall here. S.. someone or something got caught in the blast and… m.. melded on a molecular scale to the panels.”

“Someone desperate.. and someone very unlucky.” Bran added, visualizing the blast.

“I wouldn’t be so sure they were unlucky,” Jaheira said, looking at the damage. “Look at the power conduit, it’s a T-junction.”

“Right…”

“If you wanted to assure yourself a large explosion, you blow open one of those, the regulators won’t kick in before you dump a lot of electroplasma on the deck.”

“One hell of a brutal booby trap… one you don’t see till you’re not much more than goo on the wall,” Imoen added.

“Yeah… The more I see of this ship, the more I get the sense something really bad happened on board,” said Bran.

“You mean worse than an accident bad enough to send a cruiser into deep space to not be found for 500 years?” Imoen asked sarcastically.

A breathless Aerie cutting in on the channel cut off Bran’s retort. “I.. I.. think I have something… I.. I think it’s a life sign.”

“A life sign? Humanoid?”

Aerie punched a few buttons on her gauntlet, trying to narrow her scan and get a better reading. “I.. it appears to be humanoid. It’s very faint though.”

“Where?”

Aerie uplinked the data to Bran’s suit computer. According to the readings, the life sign was five decks down and further aft. Transferring the data to the others, he said, “Interesting.” Pausing to confirm it again, he said, “Immy, I need a gangway down. Got anything?”

Imoen bent over her wrist computer, putting her scout suit’s sensor array on full. A few moments later, Imoen said, “Got something. Fifty meters further aft, looks like a major gangway.”

Informing a still distracted sounding Nalia what they were up to and checking the charge on his pulse rifle, Bran announced, “Alright. Hopefully whoever is down there can maybe supply an answer or three to what is going on.” Looking at Imoen, he said, “Alright sis, lead the way.”

Quickly and silently, the six moved further aft and down into the ancient ship, searching for the faint life sign and for answers.




0 user(s) are reading this topic

0 members, 0 guests, 0 anonymous users

Skin Designed By Evanescence at IBSkin.com